10.14.5 crashing repeatedly

Question

Level 1

8 points

10.14.5 crashing repeatedly

Since I installed the MacOS 10.14.5 upgrade, my 32gb iMac is repeatedly crashing, around once an hour. It happens regardless of what I'm running, including when I'm only running Safari. I'm hoping there will be an upgrade to address this if others are having this issue, rather than having to roll back to the previous version using Time Machine and losing other work. I've never had to roll back, so I'm not sure how much I'll lose. I never had a problem with crashes before this upgrade.

iMac 27", macOS 10.14

Posted on May 23, 2019 2:35 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

bhenri

Level 4

1,354 points

May 23, 2019 2:57 PM in response to ianoid

Follow Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support to see if issue persists in safe mode

See if issue occurs in a test user account following steps in How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

210,645 points

May 23, 2019 2:39 PM in response to ianoid

Are you able to reboot normally after a crash?

Download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Add Text button to include the report in your reply. How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

210,645 points

May 23, 2019 3:23 PM in response to ianoid

I don't see any of the usual suspects in the report. Do you have any 3rd party RAM modules installed? If so where did you get them?

Boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down), launch Disk Utility and run first aid on the boot drive and then reboot normally. Any improvement?

If not boot again into the Recovery volume and reinstall the system. It only installs the system and will not touch your data files. Any improvement?

Reply

Answer 4

ianoid Author

Level 1

8 points

May 23, 2019 3:52 PM in response to Old Toad

I have third party RAM "OWC 32GB (4 x 8 GB) 1867 MHZ DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-14900 204 Pin CL11 Memory Upgrade, (OWC1867DDR3S32S)" from Amazon.

Haven't had any problems since installing two months ago. Only started having problems with this upgrade.

First aid ran successfully on my boot drive. Running it on my backup drive. It's taking a while, so when that finished, I'll try the recovery volume solutions. Thanks !

Reply

Answer 5

ianoid Author

Level 1

8 points

May 31, 2019 1:05 PM in response to Old Toad

I used recovery mode to reinstall the OS. I am experiencing less frequent crashes but still happening a lot.

What is the next step?

Is there any way to see if the RAM is specifically part of the problem? What brand of RAM is recommended, aside from that which I can buy from Apple?

Reply

Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

210,645 points

May 31, 2019 2:32 PM in response to ianoid

You used the brand of RAM that I would have recommended, OWC or Crucial.

You might check to make sure all modules are securely mounted in their slots. If there's still crashes remove the OWC RAM and run on the Apple RAM for a while to see if the crashes occur. If not then add two modules and run for awhile. Keep adding 2 at a time till you have all 4 OWC installed again unless you start getting crashes again and then you can narrow it down to which module might be the culprit.

Reply

Answer 7

ianoid Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 12, 2019 8:04 PM in response to Old Toad

It appears to be the RAM, even after two months of usage, one of the modules seems to have failed. I worked with 8gb for a while then added in two more modules (suggested on the internet to alternate the different modules bank 0 4gb, bank 1 8gb, bank 2 4 gb, bank 2 8gb) and still works great. 24mb is still substantial on this machine so I'll give it a while and see if I have problems again and then add in the other two 8gb modules.

Thanks to everyone for your very useful help.

Reply